Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

British Airways increases the annual purchase limit for Avios to 27,000

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I’m not sure if this is ‘new’ news or if it has been available for a few weeks.

However, both ba.com and avios.com are now showing an increased cap for purchasing Avios.  It has been lifted from 24,000 per year to 27,000.

Avios wing 13

I generally do not recommend buying Avios.  If you must buy them, I generally recommend waiting for one of ‘30% extra’ promotions that turn up on a regular basis.

However, if you absolutely, desperately, necessarily must buy some at short notice, you will now find the new higher cap in place.  The price for 27,000 is £447 ….

In reality, as you can buy 27,000 via avios.com, iberia.com and ba.com – and then merge them via ‘Combine My Avios’ – the effective annual cap is now a whopping 81,000.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (16)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Manuel says:

    I thought I read yesterday somewhere that there would start a sale next week.

    Or is this just my wishful thinking?

  • John says:

    If you have 7 people in a household account and you really needed them, could you not buy 567000 avios in a year?

  • Mikeact says:

    Hopefully ‘Share my Avios’ will also increase from 24k to 27k. I needed to transfer 25k to my wife’s account for her to obtain a couple of tickets but it wasn’t possible.

    • Tony says:

      Are you not better off setting up a household account? That would let you pool the miles as opposed to having to ship them between accounts…

  • Liam says:

    OT but can i book a single baec reward ticket on my account for my girlfriend (not on my account) or does this cause problems? It would be an aer lingus flight so will have to do it over the phone regardless. Any info appreciated as always! Thanks

  • Gaz says:

    Don’t know if it’s already been mentioned elsewhere, but I’ve also noticed that BAEC Gold benefits have recently been tweaked:

    Upon reaching 5,000 Tier Points, BA gives members 3 supplementary cards: 1 Gold + 2 Silver. (Previously it was just 1 Silver card at 4,500 Tier Points)

    • Rob says:

      Not done a full post on this as only applies to about 5,000 people! Lots of potential to obtain a Gold or a Silver for yourself if you know someone who is one!

      • liam says:

        If anyone wants to send me one just let me know 😉

        • Polly says:

          Hi Liam, are you Ireland based? Anyone know of any avios credit card offers in Ireland? Or if tesco over there does club card to avios points? Thanks

    • JOE says:

      If anyone can upgrade me to BA Silver or Gold, I’ll sort you out

  • Simon says:

    If anyone is thinking about buying miles to top off an American Airlines account there is a bonus of up to 15,000 miles available until the end of the month.

    • Rob says:

      Still not terribly cheap though! Remember that the 20,000 Starwood points from the credit card can be transferred 1 to 1 to AA.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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